GRi Business, Economics & Finance 17 –
02 - 2003
Business Executive calls for accurate data on industries
Tight economic measures are the right decision for Ghana
Encourage sweet potato cultivation - Minister
Time will justify decision on fuel prices - Kan-Dapaah
Inter-bank exchange rates
Business Executive calls for accurate data on industries
Opoku-Agyemang Prempeh, Managing Director
of Lakayana Company, an Estate Development
Consortium, said such an initiative was crucial since the lack of up-to-date
data on taxable industrial concerns and companies had largely contributed to
the low revenue generation of the state.
Prempeh made the suggestion in an
interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in
This apart, he said, government
too should initiate more pragmatic moves at introducing the National Identification
System (NIS) exercise to help provide accurate data on the number and
backgrounds of citizens of the country.
Prempeh said accurate data on
the number of industries and introduction of the
He proposed to the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS), VAT Services and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services
(CEPS), to give a serious thought to engaging the services of private agencies
and companies to help in the collection of taxes.
He noted that it was obvious
that giving the staffing position of the IRS, VAT Services and CEPS, they were
unable to reach out conveniently to all tax payers. "With the involvement
of private agencies, the revenue collection machinery will be stretched to
reach out to all taxable organisations and individuals, thereby maximising
revenue collection", he stressed.
Prempeh observed that if even
"the authorities broaden the tax net but fail to involve private agencies
in the collection of revenue or increase the staff positions in the revenue collection
institutions, revenue collection and generation will remain at the same
level".
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Tight economic measures are the right decision for Ghana
Elmina (Central Region)
He in this regard called on
Ghanaians to understand and co-operate with the government in its efforts at building
a sound economy for the nation. Dr Nduom said this at the Unilever Ghana
Limited Annual Distributors Awards Dinner Dance 2002 at Elmina
at which 30 distributors were awarded for their hard work.
The theme for the celebration
was: "Achieving consistent growth and dominance everywhere, every time."
Dr Nduom, who was the guest of honour, pointed out that within the next few
months the government would be using the accumulated money it might have, used
in subsiding utilities services and petroleum products for the provision of
social amenities to better the lot of Ghanaians.
He said the NPP government had
the welfare of Ghanaians at heart and would never take any decision that would
not be in their interest. Dr Nduom expressed the hope that as soon as the good
economic policies and programmes begin to make their impact the next four years
"would be exciting" for the nation.
He praised Unilever for the
important role it was playing in the building of the nation and asked the
distributors to expand their activities outside the country. Dr Nduom appealed
to Ghanaians to encourage "successful people" to invest part of their
money in economic ventures to help improve their living conditions instead of
digging out to know the source of their money.
The Chairman of Unilever Ghana
Limited, Ishmael Yamson, said with the assistance and
encouragement being given to the private sector by the government, the company
would be expanded for the benefit of Ghanaians.
He called on the distributors to
explore the opportunities and capitalise on them to ensure the growth of the company.
The award winners were presented with cash, certificates, furniture and computers
and their accessories.
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Encourage sweet potato cultivation - Minister
This, he said, they could do by releasing
land on good terms to prospective farmers to start with the production of the
crop which has a high demand in the world market. Agyei
was delivering a talk on: "Policies of the Government", at a meeting
organised by the Busia-Danquah Club in
The Deputy Minister called on
local producers to make good use of available local raw materials instead of
relying on imported ones. He pointed out that the government was making every
effort to get entrepreneurs and organisations to take over all the factories on
the divestiture list to make them viable.
"The Shoe Factory in
Agyei said the petrol price increases
generally was painful but stressed that it was the poor who was going to suffer
if the increases had not come. The Deputy Minister called on the members of the
Club to form a co-operative and embark on farming activities to produce for
export.
He said there was the need for
Ghanaians to change their mentality and attitudes towards made in Ghana goods
or else it would not augur well for the socio-economic development of the
country, saying people should appreciate made in Ghana goods and consume them
at all cost.
He said; "we all have to
work hard to uplift the image of the government and the country in general. We
all have to unite and work as one people with common destiny and
aspirations".
Nana Safo
Adu Amankwaa, Chairman of
the Club, said they had established a fishpond at Fumesua
and that members were looking for land to go into farming. . He said it had
been the policy of the Club to go round and educate the public on government
programmes and called on the government not to do anything without keeping them
informed.
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Time will justify decision on fuel prices - Kan-Dapaah
Bole (Northern Region)
The decisions to end the
under-pricing of petroleum products and to join HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor
Countries) initiative were the most crucial interventions that the government had
made so far and they were made regardless of their political implications for
the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Albert Kan-Dapaah,
Minister of Energy said at Bole at the weekend.
Kan-Dapaah,
who was speaking at a ceremony at Bole at which Vice President Aliu Mahama cut
the sod to begin the reconstruction of the 53-kilometre Bole-Tinga road, in both cases the national interest, was made to
override that of the party.
The stretch of the road, which
is to be completed within 24 months at the cost of 45.6 billion cedis, forms
part of the 106 Bole-Bamboi Road, which links the
Southern part of the country to the Upper West Region.
Kan-Dapaah
explained that funds that were hitherto used to subsidise petroleum products
would now be spent on roads, hospitals, education, health and other areas that
would help to reduce poverty.
He said the under-pricing policy
was costing the nation dearly as the government accumulated 500 billion cedis
in subsidies in addition to the 3.4 trillion cedis it inherited from the administration
of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
"The persistent
under-pricing resulted in the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) accumulating a debt that currently exceed the primary capital of the
entire banking system of the country, which is two trillion cedis. This poses a
systemic risk to the whole banking sector," he said.
Kan-Dapaah
said considering that 50 per cent of vehicles in the country were private cars,
it was morally unfair to ask those who queued for hours at the various lorry
stations to continue to subsidise those who rode in their own cars.
"If we save the money on
subsidies for the construction of roads like the Bole-Bamboi
road posterity would appreciate it because the benefit will be evident.
However, if we continue with the subsidy future generations would curse us for
making a bad choice."
He recalled the criticisms and
condemnation that followed the decision to join the HIPC initiative, saying
they were made out of ignorance on the national economic situation at the time.
"Now that the benefits have
started coming and every district assembly has received at least one billion
cedis, we have been proved right." He explained that it was not the NPP
that classified
"Countries that are
classified as HIPC are those whose citizenry would get less than 600 dollars if
their money is to be shared among them," he said. Kan-Dapaah
said the only option left for the government at the time was to raise taxes to
do projects and that was deemed right.
He said the budget prepared for
2001 by the NDC showed that total revenue receipts for the year was to be 13.8
trillion cedis, while the total external debt was 4.4 trillion cedis, internal
debt was two trillion cedis and wages and salaries for government workers were
to take 2.6 trillion cedis. Additionally, revenue for Administration was 800
billion cedis.
"All these amounted to 9.8
trillion cedis, leaving us with only four trillion for education, road, health
and other projects," he said, adding that the decision to join HIPC was,
therefore, inevitable.
President John Agyekum Kufuor
also justified the need to pay realistic prices for petroleum prices in his
State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Thursday, saying the need to break
away from this precarious situation informed the recent near 100 per cent hike
in petroleum prices.
He observed that the past year
had been full of challenges making the government to start the first quarter of
this year with many difficult decisions in its determination to establish a
firm foundation to accelerate the economic transformation of the country.
"This is why after the
nation talked about malfunctioning of the economy for a long time, agonised
about the difficult measures that can fix it for many years, and yet tried to
dodge taking the hard decisions for so long, it is now having to bite the
bullet in a last ditch stance to free the economy for real growth," the
President said.
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Inter-bank exchange rates
Currency Buying Selling
U.S. Dollar 8,413.00
cedis 8,601.00
cedis
Pound
Swiss Franc 6,212.41 6,346.81
Canadian Dollar 5,554.53 5,674.96
Danish Kroner 1,227.51 1,254.08
Japanese Yen 69.87 71.40
South African
Euro 9,123.89 9,323.93
CFA Franc 13.91 14.21
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